Anne Margot “Honey” Lantree, who has died aged 75, achieved the unique feat of being the first woman drummer in a pop group to top the British charts as a member of the group The Honeycombs, whose single Have I the Right, a classic of the beat group era, produced by Joe Meek, reached #1 in 1964.
While there were any number of young female singers flourishing in the early 1960s, among them Dusty Springfield and Lulu, beat groups of the day were a strictly a male preserve, and the novelty of the attractive, smiling figure of Honey Lantree, in fashionable beehive hairdo, seated behind a drum kit, was a potent tool for promoting the group in television appearances and newspaper and magazine articles.
When The Honeycombs split in 1967, Honey disappeared from the music scene to raise a family, but in later life returned to playing live with a reincarnated version of the group from the 80s onwards.
Honey went on to marry David Coxall, a pensions administrator, in 1969 and spent most of the next two decades raising their two sons, Matthew and Simon.
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While there were any number of young female singers flourishing in the early 1960s, among them Dusty Springfield and Lulu, beat groups of the day were a strictly a male preserve, and the novelty of the attractive, smiling figure of Honey Lantree, in fashionable beehive hairdo, seated behind a drum kit, was a potent tool for promoting the group in television appearances and newspaper and magazine articles.
